Abstract:
This paper describes an innovative, interdisciplinary, project-based freshman course at North- western University — Engineering Design and Communication (EDC). The course fully integrates engineering design with freshman communication and is taught collaboratively by faculty from Engineering and from Arts and Sciences. Working on real projects for real clients, students acquire skills in communication, design, and teamwork and also come to see design and communication as complementary parts of the same iterative and creative problem-solving enterprise. We argue that this interdisciplinary approach improves the teaching of both communication and design and provides students with an exceptionally solid foundation for their future engineering courses and careers.

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Acknowledgements

This web site is hosted by Harvey Mudd College's Center for Design Education; its development was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant EEC-1102663, which also supported Mudd Design Workshop VIII.